Death Caller
by Calla Bridgestone
Summary: 112806 Wow this stuff is old. Okay. Didn't bother revising any of this, as I wrote this half a decade ago and thought I'd just add the rest of the chapters in. Ch 2 up?
1. Chapter One

DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the characters below except for the maid and butler. I made them up. So sue me. (Please don't!)

_For a moment she stood in paralyzed fear, not knowing what threat the approaching figure brought. It loomed in front of her like some kind of forever dark shadow, bringing with it a sense of terror-stricken fear that immediately ate at Relena's heart._

_ "Please," she called out, putting a hand out in front of her to stop the figure in it's tracks. "Who are you?"_

_ "I am Death." It's soft voice whispered in her ear, prickling her senses and making a shiver speed up her spine._

_ I am Death, it's presence announced. I am Death. And I am here for you, Relena Peacecraft._

_ "I've done nothing to you!" Relena cried helplessly as the figure took a step forward._

_ "And yet I drive you to insanity," the soft fluttery voice said, low and deep. "You wander nearer and nearer into my realms. You are near to accepting me, Relena. Give up this hopeless battle. Because you know that in the end, I shall triumph."_

_ "No!" Relena screamed. She turned on her heel and began to run. "No, I won't let you do that!"_

_ There is no hiding from Death, Relena, that masculine, unacceptably attractive voice echoed throughout her black surroundings. Death is everywhere._

_ "Don't take me!" she screamed, even as she felt it's claws grip at her shoulders. "Please, please don't! Nooooo!"_

~*~

A presence, to her right. She sat bolt upright in bed and prepared to scream. Death was near, Death was coming for her, Death was _here..._

"Ah, Miss Relena," Pagan said gaily as he opened her drapes. "Rise and shine, little girl. Your guests have arrived."

"My...my guests?" Relena asked, only vaguely aware of what that implied through her headache. She rubbed her forehead tenderly and squinted at the too-bright light of the sun as it fell onto her bedspread.

"Why, Master Heero and Master Duo have arrived. Surely you haven't forgotten your invitation?"

"My invitation." She sighed and remembered her e-mail invitations. Inviting them all for a vacation at her summer mansion had been very risky, but she wanted the young pilots to rest in peace for a spell. "Yes, you're right. Heero and Duo have arrived, have they?"

He looked down at her. "Yes, Miss Relena. And I suggest that you get dressed. It would be very rude not to meet them."

"Yes, of course."

Pagan left the room and Relena was left with a feeling somewhat sort of like dread.

~*~

"Relena-san!" Duo chirped as she and a servant approached. She looked pale and weak, but somehow managed to hold a welcoming smile to her lips. Duo spread his arms, but Relena offered her hand instead, and Duo shook it. No, he pumped it.

"Welcome, Duo," she said breathlessly. It had taken her less than her usual time to get dressed, partly because she did not want to be added into the category as "Rude Hostess."

Relena glanced at Heero, whose stony features weren't meant to be made out. "Heero," she acknowledged.

He nodded once for greeting. Duo raised an eyebrow, sensed the tension between them and cleared his throat.

"I'm very thankful that you decided to come," Relena remarked, looking away from her past love and turning to Duo. "That was very kind of you."

Duo shrugged, smiled coyly. "Who'd want to miss out on a huge mansion with two swimming pools?"

Relena smiled faintly and turned her back to them. "If you two would please come with me. Thomas will take your bags. I'd like to take you on a tour of the palace to familiarize you with your surroundings."

The servant took their bags and they both fell behind Relena, Duo somewhat cheerily and Heero a little less so.

~*~

Duo stretched back on his large, king-sized bed, relaxing. Relena had been so nice to invite them here for a vacation. But he knew there was something else. And he sensed that it was because of something to do with Heero.

_She wants to see him that bad,_ he mused. _It's so sad that Heero doesn't want to get involved with her. I'll have to ask him later as to why he doesn't, though. It puzzles me, really._

"Hello?! Anybody here?"

That voice. That...so familiar voice...Duo's ears prickled at it. He had heard that voice many times in the past whisper soft utters of love into his ear on a cold, rainy night, her body next to his, keeping him warm...

Duo jumped off of his bed and peeked out into the hallway.

There she stood, a backpack slung over one arm, talking to one of the servants.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but Miss Relena isn't available at the moment," the servant called Thomas announced to her.

Hilde sighed, shifted her weight onto the other foot. "Well, I'm a guest here! She invited me! I should at least get a little service around here."

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but I'm not in a position to know these things. I'm afraid you'll have to come back later, when the Mistress isn't busy."

"Hey, Hilde!" Duo called from the doorway to his room. Her head turned, and her eyes flashed, and a sudden joy leaped into them.

"Duo!" she cried happily, jogging down the hallway to meet with him.

"It's okay, Tom, she's alright," Duo called to the servant.

He went off in a huff, saying something about his name being _Thomas_ and not _Tom._

"So, Relena invited you, huh?" Duo asked skeptically.

Hilde sighed, switched the backpack's position to her other shoulder and stared at him. "Not even you believe that, Duo? You can go ask her right now if you want, if you even know where in the heck she is. She gave me an e-mailed invitation."

"Wonder why she invited us?" Duo wondered out loud.

"What are you talking about, you doofus?" Hilde joked. She pushed the backpack into his chest and he stumbled back with it, grinning. "Maybe she just wants us to have a good time."

Sure, but Duo wasn't sure about that. He had a feeling...a certain edge, that there was much more to it than just that.

~*~

Wufei Chang approached the towering palace with great, extreme caution. His eyes swerved to his left, his right, and he continuously kept looking over his shoulder to insure himself that no one was following him.

He entered the front gates, the gravel scratching the bottom of his shoes lightly as he neared the front door. At the front door, he paused, extract great care in pushing the bell, and it chimed.

A few seconds later, a servant opened the door.

"Yes, sir?" the servant asked. It was female, and Wufei summed her up in one glance. She had no power to defeat him. It was something he did every time he saw a new face; examined their grace, their aura, and if he sensed a threat, he would act upon it.

"Is Miss Relena here?"

Before the words were out of Wufei's mouth, Relena appeared from behind the servant and smiled at him. A welcoming, thankful smile.

"Wufei," she said. "I'm sorry I couldn't be the one to meet you. I was having problems, and I do regret that I didn't have the time to greet Miss Schbeiker as well."

"Hilde is here?" Wufei asked.

Relena nodded and she opened the door wide for him. "Here, let me take you on a tour of the palace," she offered. "Let Charlotte take your bags for you."

It sounded routine to Wufei. Like it was her responsibility, and she had grown very tired of it a long time ago.

Wufei nodded, gave the bags to the girl, and followed in Relena's wake.

~*~

The pale orb glittered down onto her on her place on the window sill, so still, so silent, so solitary in the sky. No stars accompanied it tonight, and the round, full paleness of the moon whispered to her softly, _I am here._

Relena's breath caught on her throat and her heart thrummed loudly in her ears.

_Who are you?_ her mind asked desperately.

_I am Death,_ came the answer.

Relena's arms were immediately wrapped around her legs as she brought them up to her chest, and she shivered that oh so familiar shiver. Her skin tingled with the expectancy of Death to come leaping upon her at any minute, it's claws unsheathed and its fangs bared.

_I am Death._

Something was coming. If it wasn't already here.

~*~

Hilde yawned, stared at the moon in soft dismay. How she missed those nights with Duo, alone, together, warm in his strong, muscled arms.

Yet her spine tingled as she stared at the moon from her king-sized bed, and her heart slowed to an impossible speed, and her mind sped like an unstoppable motor.

_He's coming,_ her heart screamed to her. _But who is...he? Is he a threat? Something that should be feared? Or something...harmless?_

Her feet led her to Duo's door, and she knocked softly on the exterior. Her hand gripped for the golden-painted doorknob, and she twisted it clockwise.

"Hey, Hilde, what's up?" Duo asked from the bed. He was reading a book, shirtless.

_Don't dare look at his chest._

Hilde blinked, smiled an embarrassed smile, and focused on his cobalt blue pools of warmth.

"I--I couldn't get to sleep," she stammered, blinking several times.

Duo flushed and closed the book, looking back up at her.

_Oh, God, I didn't mean for it to sound like an invitation,_ she thought. She cleared her throat and made no moves towards his bed.

"So, Duo, what're you reading?" she asked, her bright tone a bit too forced. She leaned against the doorframe and crossed her arms, making it plain to see that she wasn't going to move for a while.

"Dracula," he answered with a smirk.

That shiver ran up her spine again. No. It was just coincidence. There weren't such things as vampires. It was stupid, really, to even think of such an unbelievable concept.

"You miss me?" she suddenly found herself asking. And suddenly found herself wanting to know. Did he miss her?

Duo stared out of the window, then back at her. "Yeah."

A simple question followed by a simple answer. But not such simple circumstances.

"You miss me?" he inquired right back at her.

She glanced at the window, then back at him. "Yes."

Duo and her had left each other as friends, but not satisfied at knowing that was the only thing they would ever be. Those nights in his arms were just misunderstandings before they fully really understood they could only be friends.

_"I don't understand, Duo,"_ she remembered herself saying that day. _"Don't we mean so much more to each other then just merely friends?"_

_ "You really don't understand,"_ had been his comeback. _"It wouldn't work out for the both of us."_

But in reality, Duo Maxwell hadn't let the relationship go on because she was getting too near his heart. The closer they became, the harder it would be to let go if she got killed in a battle. So he set the relationship up as friends. Just close, nice friends.

It worked that way.

~*~

The sun wasn't even near the horizon when Relena woke up.

That voice, that dreaded, terrible voice had been in her dreams again, and she willed herself to escape the boundaries of her dream-hazed world.

_I am Death._

Who was Death, really? Was it God, disguising himself as a dreaded figure clad in black? Or was it something entirely different, someone you didn't need faith to believe in?

Relena sighed, then brightened. Swimming. Today she would go swimming to get her mind off of these troublesome worries that so often plagued her. Maybe Duo, Hilde, Heero and Wufei would like to join her, and for those few hours, she would forget.

Forget about Death.

~*~

Hilde inhaled a gust of air and jumped quickly into the pool. _SPLASH!_ Water exploded around her, soaking her to the very bone and chilling her spine. She exhaled through her mouth, still under the water, and made bubbles blow softly around her smooth skin.

She surfaced, gasped for air, and laughed.

"I loved that," she commented.

Wufei was on a reclining chair, sunglasses hiding his eyes, head rolled back, but Hilde suspected he was asleep. Relena was trying to coax Heero into the pool. Heero was sitting on the pool's edge, his eyes fixed on someone behind Hilde.

Water attacked her from behind. Hilde screamed, tried to fend her attacker off, and realized it was Duo. She counter-attacked, and dove under the water, spotting his legs. She grabbed his ankle, pulled him down, and he crashed into the water.

Her shoulder touched his muscled chest as she tried to go up for air, but he grabbed her wrist and grinned that devil-may-care smile sown at her, and her heart ceased its endless throb.

He was amazing.

The sun gleamed behind him, making a halo seem to surround his head, and his eyes seemed filled with mirth.

She swam up, pressed her body against his, and saw the confusion in his eyes. Then the understanding.

_Flash!_ Suddenly, all air was gone from Hilde's lungs. Time was suspended around her, making everything seem to glow in shades instead of colors. As thought everything were sketched in.

_I am coming,_ a voice rang inside her head as she floated between the spaces of time and space. The water felt unreal, and Duo was nowhere in sight.

Then, suddenly, she sucked in precious air.

"Hilde, you okay?" Someone, slapping her back. She was still in the pool, and Duo was beside her.

"Yeah," she managed to gasp. But she wasn't, not really.

Something was going to happen. Today.

~*~ 

Relena gazed fondly over at the young couple. They looked so perfect for each other, so made for each other.

She glanced back at Heero, who wouldn't even meet her eyes.

"Heero, come into the pool," she coaxed, her eyes pleading, begging. He stared at her, finally meeting her gaze, and narrowed his eyes just the slightest.

"I don't feel like it, Relena."

Oh, the way he said her name! The way it rolled on his tongue in such a fascinating, alluring way was enchanting.

Relena sighed, ready to turn and wade away from him, but suddenly, she found herself grabbing onto his ankle and dragging him down into the pool.

_SPLASH!_

She smiled, felt the beginnings of a laugh inside her stomach, and tried to walk away through the water without so much as a smile on her face.

"Relena!" he sputtered behind her, reaching the surface.

"I tried to warn you," Relena said off-handedly, putting her hand out to her side, palm up and arm bent, as if to imply she had no choice. "But you wouldn't listen, Heero. I said to come into the pool, I begged, I pleaded, but you just wouldn't-"

Her sentence was interrupted by sudden hands on her shoulders. She was plunged under water, and the laugh came out, making bubbles fizz around her. Her stomach tingled, and her face relaxed into that smile, and she swam up to the surface, dragging in air and looking like a wet cat.

Heero stood behind her, arms crossed, looking as though he didn't do anything. But he had the ghost of a smile faintly touching his lips as she gave him an accusing glare.

She was about to say something, when suddenly, "Miss Relena! Heero! Duo! Nice to see you all again!"

Relena turned, and Duo waved frantically at Quatre and Trowa, who were approaching the pool.

"Oh, Quatre! Trowa!" Relena called out, wishing she had more suitable attire to greet them in.

She hesitated, then, before she could make a move Duo leaped out of the pool, grabbed a bewildered Wufei's wrist, and dragged him off, calling over his shoulder, "We'll give them the tour, Relena!"

Before she could say anything, they were off and around the corner faster than she could comprehend.

"That was terribly rude of me," she said scoldingly to herself.

"Don't worry about it," Heero said in his usual, monotone voice. "He won't break anything. I hope."

~*~

Thomas scoffed, turned to Charlotte.

"These guests are such pigs," he commented as he picked up Duo's dirty underwear and tossed it into the laundry sack Charlotte was holding. "Especially this one."

"I don't know," Charlotte said with a grin, her sharp British accent making the sentence seem amused. "This one's kind of cute."

"Leaving us with all their dirty laundry." Thomas shook his head. "And can you believe it, this one actually called me _Tom._ Tom, for goodness sakes!"

Charlotte giggled, went right about folding Duo's bed. "I do declare, Thomas, you _are_ the complainer. This is what you're paid to do. And Miss Relena truly is a wonderful girl, she is. Working for her is like helping a friend."

Thomas shook his head, grabbed the laundry bag, and stomped out the door.

"Thomas!" Charlotte whined. She shook her head and sighed straightening the wrinkles in the bedspread and giving it a final tap with her palm. "That should do it. Now to go inform a certain someone of what a pain he's being."

~*~

"A toast to our beloved hostess," Quatre said, smiling that bright, welcoming smile at her.

Relena sighed just the slightest and watched as everybody reached for each of their glasses on the table. She tried her best to smile happily as Quatre beamed at her.

A piercing scream toppled all the glasses to their sides.

"What in the world," Hilde breathed.

Heero leaped to his feet and grabbed for his gun. Duo did the same and they each pointed it to both exits to either side of the dining room, the kitchen, and the hallway.

"Guns! At dinner! Heero, Duo, where're your manners?" Quatre asked.

There was silence from each person at the table, then Hilde got up out of her seat and headed for the hallway.

"Hilde!" Duo warned.

Relena's heart pumped rapidly in her chest as Hilde got closer to the door, and her mind sped.

_I am Death,_ that familiar voice haunted her head. _I am here for you, Relena Peacecraft._

She got to her feet, placed her sweaty palms against the wooden tables, and her temples began to throb.

Hilde reached for the doorknob, when suddenly, Quatre clutched at his chest.

"Quatre!" Trowa cried as Quatre fell to his knees, sweating, shaking, looking utterly terrified.

"Oh, God, oh God," Quatre whispered, staring at each one of them, terror stricken in his pupils. "Oh, God...something...a black hole, in the palace. It's here!"

_I am here._

Relena placed her right hand against her throat and felt the assuring, beating pulse there, though it did nothing to calm her fears.

_He's here. He's here for me,_ Relena thought frantically. _He is here._

The boys flew from their seats and joined Hilde at the door, pushing it violently open.

Relena stayed where she was, felt her knees buckling, and fell into her chair. Her hands nervously wrung at the elegant napkin that was conveniently in her lap, and her eyes searched the room recklessly.

A hand gripped at her shoulder, and she screamed a piercing scream herself.

Pagan looked bewildered, and frightened as well. "Miss Relena."

"What is it, Pagan?" Relena asked, trembling

Pagan's eyes were filled with worry and he continued. "Miss Relena. Charlotte was down in the laundry room, helping Thomas with the guests' laundry. It seems..."

His eyes pierced into her with such a frightening clarity that it chilled her spine.

"Thomas. He's dead."

~*~

  
  


Author's note: There's more on the way. I just got really bored with it really fast. I did it on my laptop on a 2 hr car ride, so you can't really blame me if it's bad.


	2. Chapter 2

Pagan's eyes were filled with worry and he continued. "Miss Relena. Charlotte was down in the laundry room, helping Thomas with the guests' laundry. It seems..."

His eyes pierced into her with such a frightening clarity that it chilled her spine.

"Thomas. He's dead."

* * *

Charlotte wailed in agony as she saw Relena approaching. Rushing to her side, she started to sob hysterically.

"Miss Relena," she wept convulsively. "Miss Relena! T-Thomas, h-he just co-collapsed! There was such a frightening look in his eyes, ma'am, so terribly frightening!"

Relena looked past Charlotte at the terribly pale crumpled body on the floor and she shivered. She wasn't able to reach out and comfort Charlotte just yet, her insides were too tangled together.

Heero and Duo were crouched down, close to the body, examining it with the tips of their guns. Poking and prodding at pasty white flesh.

Wufei stood far apart from the rest, arms crossed and eyes narrowed, darting here and there, searching for an invisible enemy.

Quatre lay pressed against the wall, clutching at his chest and gasping for precious, life-giving air. Trowa was beside him, trying to unveil the mystery of why he was so terrified.

"It's a hole," Quatre gasped, staring at the body, tears furiously running down his cheeks. "Look at it, it's a hole! Nothing in there..."

"What is it, Quatre?" Trowa asked, kneeling beside his friend. He placed a reassuring hand on Quatre's shoulder, but Quatre cringed away, his eyes fixated on the body.

"It's gone..." he gasped, shaking his head, his pupils mere pinpoints of horror. "Look at it...can't you feel it..."

"Quatre, listen to me," Trowa said, getting in front of Quatre's view of the body and grabbing both shoulders. "What's the matter? Tell me, what is it?"

"Miss Relena," Relena heard from her side. She took in a sharp intake of breath and looked to her right, where Hilde stood. "Relena...it's coming, isn't it?"

Relena looked at Hilde for a horrified second, then glanced back at the body.

"I'm sorry to say, Miss Schbeiker," Relena breathed, "that I have a feeling it is already here."

Hilde shivered inside. Her stomach seemed to have chilled after the trip to the laundry room, and she couldn't manage to quite control her breathing. She had been the first one in the laundry room. And what she had discovered had shocked her to the very point of terror.

_What is it?_ she wondered, troubled, as they all sat silently in the living room. _Forget what it is. I don't care what it is. Will it hurt one of us? That's what I'm most concerned about..._

She glanced over at her companions. Quatre had a blanket over his shoulders, looking extremely frightened. Trowa was trying to get answers out of him.

"Whatever that was, that certainly was no ordinary death," Wufei concluded.

"There were no flesh wounds," Heero added in. "I'm sure that whatever killed him was either a heartattack...but he seems too young for that."

"It could've been a stroke," Duo said. Then he shrugged, annoyed with himself, and turned to face the large windows. "I don't know."

"He was alive," Hilde suddenly announced. She looked at them all in disbelief. Could they really have been that dense? "Don't you see? His pulse was beating rapidly, so fast that you could have mistaken the heart for dead. But...he was still alive."

"How could he have been alive?" Trowa asked. "There were absolutely no signs of life in him. Everything had shut down. The blood stopped flowing through his veins."

"He wasn't dead. That's all I know," she pressed.

"He wasn't alive," Quatre suddenly spoke out. Six pairs of eyes planted themselves onto the quietly spoken Quatre. "No. Thomas was dead alright."

His eyes gleamed as he stared up at Hilde; she trembled. It was as though he could see into her thoughts. "Couldn't you guys feel it? His soul...it was gone. Usually, when someone dies, there is a faint trace, a faint glow of the soul left. Like a cocoon, after the butterfly has left it. But, unless Thomas had been dead for years, there was none. It wasn't right. It was...completely...unnatural."

There was utter silence in the room as they all took time to soak in the young empath's words.

"So, what are you saying Quatre?" Duo inquired suddenly. "That someone just up and went and took this guy's soul? That they just ripped it away from his body without any physical wounds?"

Quatre's eyes grew hopeless and he turned to the large living room windows. "I don't know. I know it sounds, well, stupid, but that's...what it felt like."

Complete and utter silence in the room once more. Then, Relena exhaled loudly and looked at each one of them.

"I think I shall assist Pagan and Charlotte with the police downstairs."

With that, she walked out of the room, graceful and poised.

* * *

_Je est mort..._

Charlotte clutched at her chest as the voice came at her again.

"Please," she whispered, her breath catching at the air and making her seem weak and feeble. "Please...don't hurt me..."

Her eyes darted here and there, searching for the source of the voice. The police had left hours ago, taking poor Thomas' body wth them.

Her servant's quarters wasn't quite as large as the laundry room, yet she couldn't seem to quite place where a solid object that the voice projected from should be.

Suddenly, movement. To her right. A shadow within a shadow seemed to emerge from the deadly darkness, and Charlotte sucked in a frightened breath.

"Charlotte, is it," an unnervingly attractive voice called to her. Luminescent green shone through the shadowy depths of the room, and a deep rumble of slow laughter erupted from deep within the creature. "What a wonderful name."

"Who are you," she said softly, barely audible.

"Me?" The shadow loomed ever so closer now, so close that a smothering sensation filled her lungs. So real, the sensation was, seeming to not only be her inagination.

"Me?" it asked again, so masculine, so powerful.

Charlotte's eyes grew wide as she realized what he was doing to her. Her lungs no longer functioned, her mouth opened as a deathly cold, misty mouth was pressed against hers. In a moment, all the air was sucked from her lungs, and something, a ghostly white mist, exited from her body.

Followed by gagging, excrutating pain, bolting through her very bones and nearly exploding her brain with such anguish.

_I am Death._

* * *

Hilde lay on her back, the silky blanket feeling cold and chilling against her bare, smooth skin.

The prickling at the back of her neck traveled down her spine as she stared up at the elegant ceiling fan, so starkly different against the plain white ceiling.

The sudden sound of a gust of air. Hilde's eyes narrowed, and her lips parted just the slightest. Did it...?

Yes, it did move. It moved clockwise, ever so slowly the ceiling fan did, and steadily picked up it's pace.

Hilde stared up at it, stricken, as it turned circles again and again, her mind focusing on nothing but the blades that cycled against the ceiling.

Trembling, her hand went blindly for the lamp, but instead of finding the switch, her uncontrolled hand knocked the expensive lamp over and it landed on the soft, lush carpet with a dull _thump._

The sound forced her upright and she threw her covers off, dashing for the door that couldn't seem to open.

Her hand wrapped around the golden painted knob and she twisted it violently clockwise, throwing the door open and stumbling into the even darker hallway.

"Duo," she choked out, not even knowing why she was so terrfied. It could have been an electrical short for all she knew. Or, it might have been...

_Don't think of that!_ she scolded herself as she sightlessly located Duo's door. _If you do, it might come for you somehow..._

Yanking his door open, she slammed it firmly shut behind her, leaning against the wooden polish.

"Hilde," a surprised Duo burst.

"Sorry, Duo," she said a little breathlessly. "I...I was looking for the bathroom."

"Did you have to go that bad?" he asked. "'Caus by the speed you came in here, I thought all hell had broken loose or something."

He was in his bed again, reading that book of his. Shirtless.

_Don't dare look at his chest,_ she repeated in her mind. Then, getting frustrated at herself, _Okay, you can look at his chest. But don't dare start staring._

"Uh, Hilde." Her head snapped up at the mention of her name. "Are you okay? You look all pale."

"Of course I'm okay," she breathed. Seeing him had obliterated the dread that had been coursing through her veins and somehow added a new kind of fear in its own.

_What's he going to do? Wait. Face it Hilde, you're not afraid of what he'll do. You're afraid of what he won't do._

Hilde stared down at herself for the first time and found she was only wearing her thin, lace nightgown. That and her underwear.

"What are you reading?" she asked, trying to make conversation.

"I think we've been through that," he said, smirking. He put the book down and stared up at her.

Her feet moved of their accord and led her to stand close to his bed.

"So. You enjoying your stay at Relena's?" he asked.

She nodded, smiled faintly, and took a deep breath. "Are you enjoying it?"

He smiled, leaned back against the headboard of the bed and tried to relax. But how could he possibly relax when she was this close? He found himself trying to control his breathing, trying to compress it.

_You shouldn't feel this way, Maxwell,_ he chided himself. _It's probably illegal in some foreign countries. Because do I want to...no. I can't._

"Yeah, my stay's been great," he said, trying to act light. "Except for the dead body and all. I mean, you can't really rest when this dude's staring up at you, still alive, or so Quatre--"

A scream. Just above them. Duo sat stock stil, then he and Hilde shot quick glances at each other.

"The servant's quarters?" Hilde asked as he grabbed for his gun.

"Hell yeah," he answered gruffly, cocking the device. "This isn't pretty. Not pretty at all. In fact, this is getting rather damned ugly."

* * *

"No, no, this can't be," Relena sobbed, pressing her hands against her mouth to muffle her cries. "Charlotte..."

Charlotte lay in her bed, her eyes open, staring straight ahead in front of her, seeming to be looking at some invisible threat. The way her eyes were open was a little more than just eerie, as though she were...still alive in some warped way.

"Who in the hell keeps killing these people?" Trowa questioned.

They were all crowded in Charlotte's room, very small as it was, in their pajamas. Hilde in her nightgown and Relena in her clothes from earlier in the afternoon. She hadn't even changed, she was probably too busy to.

Heero noticed this and wondered why she looked like she hadn't even bothered to change.

"Relena, where were you when this happened?" he asked, his voice flat and emotionless, as it always was.

"Are you accusing Relena?" Hilde asked incredulously. Relena didn't even look up from the body, so shaken she was. "Does she _look_ like she could be a killer?"

"As far as I'm concerned Hilde, this is none of your concern."

"Oh, and does that automatically make it yours?"

"Quarreling will get us nowhere but in circles," Wufei intervened. "And I do not think it is circles we would like to travel in."

"Damned right," Duo agreed. He sighed and put his hand against his forehead, turning away from the rest of them. "I feel like I'm trapped inside a game of _Clue._"

"Any one of us could be the killer," Trowa informed. "But the main question is, how did these murders happen?"

"I told you all already! Someone took her soul!"

They all shot looks toward Quatre, who as shrinking away from the body.

"Quatre, say that again. And this time, listen to yourself."

Quatre glanced over at Trowa and couldn't help but grit his teeth. "Alright, Trowa. You may not believe in souls, but I do. Here's a simpler term for you: someone sucked Thomas and Charlotte's essences from them. Do you understand that?"

"We're really getting nowhere with this," Hilde spoke up.

"I deeply apologize for the inconvenience," Relena said feebly.

"Yeah, inconvencience," Duo said under his breath. "No, don't worry, we're used to having people collapse all over us."

Hilde nudged him in the ribs.

* * *

The moon was a desolate crescent in the sky, so unfulfilling, so unwhole.

Quatre's ears prickled at every noise as he stared out at the woods from his place on the balcony, leaning cautiously over the railing to scan the path into the woods.

_Where could this thing have come from?_ he wondered. _And the pain. Such terrible pain the victims have experienced. What alive on earth could possibly_

_inflict that much torture?_

A knock, from within his room. The door.

"Come in," he called over his shoulder.

Hilde Schbeiker poked her head through the opened door and glanced over the room. When Quatre couldn't be found, her eyes trailed to the balcony, where his back was turned to her as he looked out towards the woods.

"Quatre," she called out softly.

His head turned, and his eyes flashed with recognition, but he didn't say a word as she joined him on the balcony.

"It's terrible," he began. "The way these people die...they're still alive, but have no essence, no will to live anymore. I really don't expect you to believe me, but..."

"I believe you," she said in a hushed whisper.

He looked at her in astonishment. "You do?"

"Yes. I do. I don't want to, but I guess I have to."

"Why do you think you have to?"

She sighed, shrugged, and leaned forward on the railing, clasping her hands. "I'm not sure. I guess it's because..."

_Le mort...le mort de mille personnes..._

Hilde sucked in a terrified breath. Her eyes flew to Quatre, and he glanced over at her, frightened himself.

"Do you feel that?" she asked.

The back of Quatre's neck prickled and his stomach turned. "Yes, I feel it..."

"It's not going to strike again, is it?"

A thought struck Quatre's mind. "Where is Miss Relena?"

"She's in the garden, I think."

"What is she doing down there?!"

Grabbing her wrist, Quatre dashed for the door, into the hallway, his shoes making dull thumping noises on the thick carpeting.

A scream!

"You don't think...?" Hilde let the sentence trail off. "Duo! Duo, get out here!"

They rushed past his room, but she sensed it opened behind them.

"Hilde?"

"Come on!" she cried.

Seeing Quatre's hand firmly wrapped around Hilde's wrist, Duo called, "Hey, Quatre, get your own girlfriend!"

"Just come on!" Hilde yelled, and with that, they disappeared down into the darkened hallway.

Two other doors burst violently open, and Trowa and Wufei stepped precariously out of their rooms, guns held tightly in their hands and ready to shoot.

"They went that way," Duo said, forgetting completely about his gun and racing past them.

Duo sighed inwardly and shook his head, muttering under his breath, "Some vacation this turned out to be."

Running now, running. Hilde was running for all her life was worth, because if anything happened to Relena...she'd never forgive herself.

_...I have a feeling it is already here..._

_Oh, Relena!_ Hilde thought miserably and panickedly, _Relena, why did you invite us? Why, oh why, in God's name did you invite us? Maybe this wouldn't have happened if...if..._

Quatre's hand was warm in her hand, and reminded her of Duo's. Why was it that it was always the friendlier, nicer type of guy who had warmer hands than the rest?

Her mind speeding, praying now, praying, that nothing had happened to Relena, that Relena was alright, that Relena was...

And that was when they heard the first gunshot.

* * *

Heero Yuy, Pilot of Gundam Wing Zero, had no time for vacations. He didn't like feeling relaxed, he didn't like not always being on the alert for any sign of a new enemy.

So he had picked the murder scenes clean (_was_ it really murder, though?) while everybody had been up in the second floor, resting, sleeping, just dozing off, whatever...

_Or so I like to think,_ he mused idley.

_Relena._

Oh, that name, jolted into his very being, constructed out of his own grace, filled him with worry and regret and love and doubt and hate, all at once, making his mind a jumble and granting him an inability to _focus._

He felt so flustered and confused when it came to that mere name by itself, let alone the real person.

_Stop._

He stiffened, felt the air around him tense, felt his skin prickle. Something was near, he almmost felt as though he could smell it. But...it was difficult to trace. Like an apple that was two inches in front of you, yet it was covered tighly up in a dirty, old, odorless rag.

He felt as though if he should move, the thing would move with him, causing nothing and everything to topple along with them and crash to the jagged splinters of hell below.

But there was no hell, no splinters, no nothing and no everything. There was just him, standing in Charlotte's old room, with that feeling. That _sense._

Heero unlatched the safetly from his gun and cocked it.

_Relax,_ he said unemotionally to himself. _Relax, it's most likely just one of the guys, playing a stupid joke. Just tell them to head back to bed, this is my turf, watch them go quietly in their own little ways. Quatre obediently. Trowa silently. Wufei with an air of pride and significance. Duo...there's going to be some trouble with him. Hilde with regret. And Relena..._

_Garden._

It screamed to him in his mind.

_Garden, garden, garden._

He muttered an obscene word silently under his breath and ran for Charlotte's slim, tiny door quietly, intent on finding out what this new sensation was inside of him.

"Relena! Relena!" Heero skidded around the corner, his gun out in front of him, held with both hands. The animal hedges greeted him with their menacingly innocent smiles and frighteningly blank faces.

He slowed, taking a step at a time towards the garden entrance, his eyes flickering to each animal.

A rablit, a lion and lioness, a wolf howling at the moon, an ostrich, a bear and its two bear cubs. They made an aisle to either side of him, four on one side, four on the other, that led straight into the garden.

Sudden movement. Heero focused on the lioness. Hadn't she been lying lazily on the ground, her tail curled around her? Now she was in a position that almost made her seem as though she were getting up.

Movement!

Heero stopped abruptly and qiuckly turned his gun on it. He saw nothing amiss, but...the wolf. Its muzzle was pointed at the sky seconds earlier. Now it focused its leafy, thorn-covered fangs towards him.

Rustling!

Heero turned sharply yet again, his eyes darting for an explanation. His chest felt constricted, his ears prickled at every sound, and his heart hammered quickly in his throat because of the adrenaline rush.

The lion had taken a step forward, bearing him a terrifying grin of evil.

An ear-peircing scream that rattled his brain sent the hedges into a rustling conversation, though when he turned to each one of them, they were motionless. Yet in a different position than they had been before...and ever more closer to him than they had been last.

Heero's breath came out in quick, short, inaudible gasps of confusion.

_What the hell am I so scared of?_ he asked himself scoldingly. He gritted his teeth, felt the firm ground beneath him for support, and sprinted towards the garden entrance as he heard twigs snapping, leaves rustling, thorns scraping.

Heero was knocked to the ground! He rolled onto his back in that fluid, millitary-like motion, aimed at air, and _BLAM!_

The bullet passed through the heart of the figure clad in black that stood over him, and it laughed.

A sinuous, evil laugh only Death could have uttered through its thin, pale lips.


End file.
